Notepad

ABSTRACT

A notepad for use as an advertising medium has a cubical stack of tear-off sheets glued together along one edge and advertising matter screenprinted on at least one cut face defined by the edges of the sheets. A bore suitable for accommodating a ball point pen or pencil extends partially through the stack from at least one surface of the stack.

United States Patent Ritter et al.

NOTEPAD Inventors: Karl Hermann Ritter, Sachenstr. 5; Johannes Andreas Ritter,

Thuringersr. 5, both of 61 Darmstadt-Eberstadt, Germany Filed: Sept. 4, 1973 App]. No.: 393,800

Related US. Application Data Continuation-impart of Ser, No. 232,749, March 8, 1972, abandoned.

US. Cl 283/56; 229/40 Int. Cl. G09f 23/10 Field of Search 283/56, 38; 281/15;

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 4/1902 Cane 283/63 1 June 24, 1975 Primary ExaminerLawrence Charles Attorney, Agent, or Firm--Karl F. Ross; Herbert Dubno 57] ABSTRACT A notepad for use as an advertising medium has a eubical stack of tear-off sheets glued together along one edge and advertising matter screenprinted on at least one cut face defined by the edges of the sheets. A bore suitable for accommodating a ball point pen or pencil extends partially through the stack from at least one surface of the stack.

2 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures PATENTEDJUN 24 I975 w E w H. m M

I N F' OEMATION a- FIG. 2

1 NOTEPAD CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This is a continuation-in-part of our copending US. Pat. application Ser. No. 232,749 filed on Mar. 8, 1972 and now abandoned.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a notepad. More specifically this invention concerns a notepad which is intended to carry advertising, a message, or the like.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Notepads are known which have tear-ff sheets glued together at one cut side and which may provide an advertising effect by means of printed matter displayed on the individual sheets. Such notepads are, however, relatively flat and consequently of limited advertising effectiveness. Moreover, if the printed matter is to be of sufficient size to be eyecatching, the usable portion of the individual note sheet is significantly reduced. Furthermore, advertising material printed on note sheets can not infrequently beirritating to the user.

Also known are books, e.g. telephone directories, of sufficient thickness to permit the application of advertising texts to their cut faces.

Such books are, however, of limited application as advertising media, on account of their cost, their specialized use and their size.

There are also known writing sets adapted to accommodate writing implements and provided with advertising representations, which, though effective for advertising purposes, have no great utility value since they are singlepurpose appliances which can easily be dispensed with.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved notepad.

Another object is the provision of such a notepad which can carry a large and eye-catching advertisement, message, or the like, wherein this image or indicia in no way interferes with the conventional use of the pad.

A further object is to provide such a notepad which is inexpensive to manufacture and handy to use.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the invention, a notepad of prismatic or prismoidal shape is provided, which is defined by a stack of tear-off sheets each having a straight edge. The sheets are attached together at this edge and at least one substantially smooth face defined by edge regions of the sheets has printed matter thereon.

The sheets would normally be polygonal; however, their edge regions could also contain curved portions and for the purpose of this specification and the appended claims, the expression prismatic or prismoidal" should accordingly be read to include a shape of notepad defined by sheets having such curved, e.g. arcuate, portions.

According to another feature of this invention the printed matter preapplied by a screen-printing process. Particularly when thick paper is used for the sheets, this has the advantage that no printing ink soaks in between the sheets from the cut faces during printing and that,

in spiteof a certain amount of roughness of the cut faces, rich and sharply defined printed patterns of high resolution can be achieved.

In accordance with other features of our invention the shape of the notepad is preferably that of a parallelepiped or cube, which enables pictorial advertising representations of large surface area to be applied to the substantially smooth or cut face or faces in an effectively eye-catching manner.

The printed matter covers substantially the entire side face of the note block, extending from the top to the bottom thereof. A background at least extends from top to bottom, with the most important part of the printed matter being positioned near the bottom. It has surprisingly been found that the message conveyed to the user is virtually the same after he has used the notepad for a while and has removed so many sheets that much of this message is no longer present. This is due to the fact that after repeated viewing he automatically reads in or sees that which is missing. Another substantial advantage of printing on the sides is that the message in no way interferes with the use of the sheets of paper on the pad, indeed it is almost impossible to see the printing on the edge of a single sheet, and at the same time a large and eye-catching image is presented to both the user or anyone in view of the notepad. When such a notepad sits on a desk it is a constant advertisement and reminder to the holder of the desk and anyone who enters his office, while the attractiveness and usefulness of the pad causes it to be kept plainly in view.

The sheets are preferably stuck together by an adhesive, such as glue.

More specifically it is another feature of the invention to attach the sheets together by applying to one side of the stack of sheets a synthetic-resin film, polyethylene for instance, over which the message may also be printed.

A notepad according to the invention has at least one bore extending through at least part of the stack from at least one surface thereof, this bore being of such dimensions as to accommodate a writing implement such as a pen (e.g. a ball point pen) or pencil. The bore may extend all the way through the stack, but preferably extends through only part of the stack, thereby defining a blind hole. In this way dirtying of the surface (e.g. a desk) on which the notepad lies by a writing implement inserted into a said bore is avoided.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING The above and other objects, features, and advantages will become more readily apparent from the following with reference to the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a block according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a top view of the block of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the block packaged for sale.

SPECIFIC DESCRIPTION The notepad 5 shown in FIGS. 1-3 comprises a plurality of identical square sheets 2 of notepaper. These sheets 2 are formed with straight edges which are exactly coextensive with the edges of the underlying and- /or overlying sheets to define four vertical planar faces la-ld.

The pad is held together by a syntheticresin film 6 applied to the face la. Each of the faces 141-111 is covered from the top sheet to the bottom sheet with printed matter 4 here shown to comprise a background 4a, a name 4b, and other indicia indicated at 40. The

matter 4 is screen printed on each of the faces lald.

In addition the pad 5 is formed with a blind bore 3 which is open at the top sheet and passes substantially three-quarters of the way through the stack, so that a writing instrument may be lodged in this hole for ready use.

There is no printing on the top sheet of the pad, as the whole idea of the notepad is that the user can simply write directly on this top sheet without having to open up the pad. Thereafter he can rip off the used sheet to expose another sheet which is completely blank.

FIG. 3 shows how the pad 5 is packaged in a transparent hard polyethylene wrapper 7 formed with a handle 8. The pad is sold or given in this form, so that the buyer or donee may see just what he is getting, and will be able to transport it without difficulty. Additional information as shown at 9 is printed on the wrapper 7.

Paper of 80g to 100g weight is used for the sheet 2, and a cube approximately 10cm on a side thus has approximately l000 sheets.

The pad shown is cubic with its sides or facets all extending at right angles to each other. It is also within the scope of this invention to form the pad of another 4 shape; For instance it may be pentagonal, triangular, hexagonal, or similarly shaped as seen in plan, with all of its sides provided with printed matter.

We claim:

l. A binde rfree notepad comprising:

a multiplicity of congruent substantially square sheets arrayed one atop the other coextensively in a generally cubical stack having a height equal generally to the length of a sheet side, said stack having a plurality of lateral faces defined exclusively by the coestensive edges of said sheets;

an adhesive bond on one of said faces securing said sheets together at said one face by the sheet edges forming said one face, said sheets being readily separable from said stack at said edges forming said one face;

a screen-printed pattern on each of said faces extending over substantially all of the sheet edges forming said faces; and

a synthetic resin wrapping conforming to the stack and completely surrounds same said wrapping being provided with a handle and being transparent, said patterns each including a background color completely covering the respective face.

2. The notepad defined in claim lwherein said stack is formed with an empty blind bore opening at a face thereof perpendicular to said lateral faces for receiving a writing instrument. 

1. A binderfree notepad comprising: a multiplicity of congruent substantially square sheets arrayed one atop the other coextensively in a generally cubical stack having a height equal generally to the length of a sheet side, said stack having a plurality of lateral faces defined exclusively by the coestensive edges of said sheets; an adhesive bond on one of said faces securing said sheets together at said one face by the sheet edges forming said one face, said sheets being readily separable from said stack at said edges forming said one face; a screen-printed pattern on each of said faces extending over substantially all of the sheet edges forming said faces; and a synthetic resin wrapping conforming to the stack and completely surrounds same said wrapping being provided with a handle and being transparent, said patterns each including a background color completely covering the respective face.
 2. The notepad defined in claim 1 wherein said stack is formed with an empty blind bore opening at a face thereof perpendicular to said lateral faces for receiving a writing instrument. 